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Propress joints aren't better than soldered ones. They are faster. There is nothing wrong with a soldered in fitting.

But from what I do on a day to day, and the jobs we get, and all that, we have no NEED for a propress. We could rent one and be just fine. We just happen to own one. And I make use of it, since I think it is pretty. But I have to be careful in my wording, and billing when dealing with propress. Because it is faster, I have to recoup our basic hourly rate some other way. We are a flat rate company, but when I press something in and it took 5 minutes, you better have sold the customer on the quality of fitting and charged a tool charge or something. And they will still feel raw about paying the same for something pressed in, as soldered.

Because the run of the mill homeowner relates quality with time. Businesses and emergencies are a different story. But when you are twice as fast they don't see it as you knew what to do, when and how and that you are fast because you are good, they think that if they pay a plumber alot of money, it should take forever.

And I can prove it. charge a customer 1000 for a water heater. If you take 10 hours to put it in, they will be so thankful and happy. Now if it takes 10 minutes, get ready for a argument.

If you are not good at talking and explaining, you are really going to be seeing pissed off customers with press.

Well that's the thing .The customer thinks for a $300 job you should be there all day .And if you are flat rate or hourly that doesn't work. I am hourly but have to flat rate things like water heaters. Here's your price /Call around and compare etc.I install water heaters at the going rate in my area and sometimes they take an hr. sometimes less. Even though I am hourly I explain to my customer I don't want to be there any longer than I need to or any longer than you want me to be here. Here's a rough estimate..I would probably flat rate a lot more things using a propress. I mean you don't really have to wait for things to drain down etc.

I was on a building last week contractor wanted a price to cap off a bunch of water lines..Nope I couldn't do it. I wasn't sure how long things were going to take to drain down etc.He understood.The building was a nightmare and one line ran the whole time..Ended up using compression ball valve and cap..Propress would have saved the day there..So the next day I went out and bought a jet swet ..Hey it's something

''Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" Benjamin Franklin

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Again, I don't run a business, but I run a truck. At near 100% profit everyday. By that I mean, at the end of the day, after parts, I have charged out my WEEKS worth of wages. That being said.. And that is on average, some days better some days worse, but anyways.

I basically use flat rate, guess and hourly. We area "flat rate" shop, but my boss doesn't care why I bring him a 100 dollar bill, as long as he didn't have to pay for that hundred. And I honestly don't believe either system is the best for every situation. Hourly can be the most fair, but then again it can be way more expensive. Flat rate will generally always make money, but you are battling with customers thinking about the hourly wage. So I use a mix of all 3.

Of course I also use a "I don't want to do this job" system. And that one is where I WAY overprice it because I just don't want anything to do with it. If they decline, I win. Didn't want to do it anyways, for whatever reason. If they accept charges, then I make my boss really happy. So either way I win.

But anything with press I flat rate, if I charged by the hour I would end up losing my job for doing so much work for cheap.

I will just start explaining to my customers straight up with pro press. It's faster, arguably better and I can not stay in business charging you by the hour using the machine. Plus it wasn't free for me, so it's not going to be free for me to use it on your job. Or cheap. But it WILL be cheaper than soldering. And faster. And much better chances of getting it to hold the first time, so it will be even cheaper because if I charge you by the hour and a solder leaks, then you get to pay me, again, by the hour, to correct the mistake.

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Sure, whatever works. It's like drain cleaning . There is always a charge for the equipment. All I say is Yep, it's expensive to buy and expensive to maintain.I guarantee if I was using a propress on service calls there would be some sort of tool charge on the bill somewhere.Again it's a tool that's saving me time and you money by me to having to wait for your haunted house to drain down..So like the cash cabby says"Are you in?"

''Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" Benjamin Franklin